As part of a series of talks stemming from the International Authors Forum’s (IAF) Creating a Living report, the IAF along with the Society of Audiovisual Authors (SAA) and Writers & Directors Worldwide hosted an online event on the Right to Remuneration for audiovisual authors. Creators and representatives from audiovisual authors’ organisations spoke about the importance of establishing an unwaivable right to remuneration. The event comes at a time when COVID-19 continues to threaten creative industries and artists face significant losses of income. Cécile Despringre from SAA, Belgium, Patrick Raude from SACD, France; Antionio Hens and Fabia Buenaventura from SGAE, Spain and Silvio Caiozzi from ATN, Chile discussed the importance of a remuneration right for audiovisual authors.
Cécile Despringre said the best solutions in Europe (developed in Spain, Italy, France and Belgium) grant authors an unwaivable & untransferable right to remuneration for the communication to the public of their works, paid by the platform operators and managed by CMOs. She suggested the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) conduct a study, to survey the market transformation and the dominance of streaming platforms to seek solutions which enable creators to make a living from their works globally.
Patrick Raude, underlined that the Unwaivable Right to Remuneration is a key aspect of the French System and that SACD is campaigning to promote it globally with Writers & Directors Worldwide.
Silvio Caiozzi, emphasized on the fight the Chilean CMO ATN has undertaken for 20 years raising awareness for audiovisual creators rights, also discussing why an unwaivable right tor remuneration is so important. He urged the need for laws to protect creators.
Antonio Hens stressed the difficulty in controlling audiovisual rights nowadays and the need for associations to be aligned in implementing the unwaivable right to remuneration to places it doesn’t exist in the world. Antonio stated that creators and artists exist because a remuneration right exists.
Fabia Buenaventura indicated that the Spanish model is one of the most comprehensive and protective for audiovisual creators, compared to other countries. She stressed the right to remuneration is very small and does not have a distorting effect on the market. She advocated for the adoption of this method in other countries.
IAF would like to thank all the panellists and its partners for taking the time to share their views and the audience for attending.
You can watch the full discussion here.